Free Republic

Richard Roundtree, star of the genre-defining blaxploitation series Shaft, has passed away at 81 years old, according to his agency. Per Deadline, Roundtree died Monday afternoon surrounded by family, after a brief bout with pancreatic cancer. A statement from his representatives reads: “Artists & Representatives Agency mourns the loss of our friend and client Richard Roundtree,” the agency said in a statement. “His trailblazing career changed the face of entertainment around the globe and his enduring legacy will be felt for generations to come. Our hearts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time.” ....Snip..... At the...

He directed 'Watermelon Man,' did everything on 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song' and wrote a pair of Broadway musicals.Melvin Van Peebles, the pioneering African American auteur behind the 1970s films Watermelon Man and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, has died. He was 89. Van Peebles, the father of actor-director Mario Van Peebles, died Tuesday night at his home in Manhattan. His family, The Criterion Collection and Janus Films announced his death in a statement. “In an unparalleled career distinguished by relentless innovation, boundless curiosity and spiritual empathy, Melvin Van Peebles made an indelible mark on the international cultural landscape through his films,...

Scores of Americans were outraged after seeing a picture of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) presenting an American flag to the family of George Floyd as though he had been killed fighting for the country. The photo, which was seen posted on various social media sites, was confirmed as genuine by BizPac Review after locating it as part of a collection involving the family of Floyd on Pelosi’s official Twitter feed. “Philonise Floyd’s heart-wrenching testimony to @HouseJudiciary left its mark on us all. May this flag, which flew over the Capitol on the day of his brother’s murder, serve as...

South Bend’s police union accuses Mayor Pete Buttigieg of playing politics with the shooting of Eric Logan and “driving a wedge” between officers and residents. In a release late Monday, the South Bend Fraternal Order of Police said it supports Sgt. Ryan O’Neill, the officer who fatally shot Logan in the parking lot of Central High Apartments on June 16. Police have said Logan was breaking into cars and approached O’Neill with a knife. The statement says the actions of Buttigieg, who is running for president, have been divisive and “solely for his political gain and not for the health...

Derrick Bell, the man whose scholarship inspired Barack Obama, was the Jeremiah Wright of academia. And a Hollywood cult hero. Bell was one of the chief proponents of Critical Race Theory, a radical doctrine that holds that American legal institutions—including our civil rights laws—perpetuate white supremacy. Bell’s ideas were not only radical, but bizarre. After leaving Harvard (he resigned in 1992), he wrote a racialist, antisemitic fictional essay titled “The Space Traders,” which Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski described in the New York Times with disgust: Imagine, if you will, that space aliens land in the United States and offer...